The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Puebla have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Puebla have paid $920.0K for Arath Egaña, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Juan Pablo Vargas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Puebla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Gularte is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kevin Velasco is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Puebla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Wages are the one subject a dressing room never discusses and always knows. Arath Egaña has signed terms at Puebla that will be quietly noted by everybody who trains beside him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Puebla know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Emanuel Gularte wants continental football; whether Puebla can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Arboleda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuel Gularte was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Puebla have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting José Pachuca's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 goals in one match, Mathías Tomás on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Puebla and Pumas UNAM.
Position 15, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Kevin Velasco is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Jonathan Jimenez to a room that had heard them before.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Florián Monzón provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Puebla paid $380.0K and Atlas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Puebla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Puebla can tell you which week it ends in.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jonathan Jimenez after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Camilo Vargas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Puebla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Paulo Ramírez. The answer from Atlas has not changed — yet.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Puebla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
$380.0K on the table at Atlas. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Ignacio Maestro Puch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tijuana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Tijuana, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tijuana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Unai Bilbao falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tijuana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Tijuana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tijuana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Jackson Porozo has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luís Esteves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jaime Gómez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atlas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
37 points in position 14: too many to go down, too few to go anywhere. The honest description of a season like this is a shrug, and the supporters have already given it.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Gaddi Aguirre has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
He came through the session, took part in everything and finished it smiling. Atlas will not rush him, and he will spend the next fortnight trying to rush them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Camilo Vargas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaime Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Atlas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Mourad was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Bilbao was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Adonis Preciado has written the date down.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastián Cervantes is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tijuana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejandro Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Aldahir Pérez
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Aldahir Pérez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Tijuana have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.